


I can breathe

by olive2read



Category: Score: A Hockey Musical (2010)
Genre: Allergies, Alternate POV, Canon Compliant, Friendship, Gen, Introspection, Podfic Available, Pre-Slash, slight angst, when doors close - or Farley's wearing cologne - open a window!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24136780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olive2read/pseuds/olive2read
Summary: Eve re-evaluates her priorities after Farley shows up wearing cologne
Relationships: Eve & Farley Gordon
Comments: 8
Kudos: 3





	I can breathe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Distractivate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Distractivate/gifts).



Eve felt her face flushing. It was somewhat inevitable with Farley standing so close to her. She hoped it wasn’t too obvious, though that was a bit of a lost cause given how pale her skin was. She’d been noticing this reaction more and more when she and Farley hung out, and worried it meant she’d have to deal with her unspoken crush sooner rather than later. Surely even a boy as oblivious as Farley was bound to notice her constantly reddened cheeks. Then again, if he kept monopolising every conversation to babble about his growing affection for his teammates, despite the fact they clearly didn’t respect him—not even Moose, who figured prominently enough in Farley’s stories that Eve wondered if Farley might be nursing a crush of his own—then she might get over this ridiculous crush before she had to tell anyone.

Not for the first time, Eve wished she had a few other friends she could talk to about this stuff. She’d met a few people with definite friend potential at Farley’s games, but hadn’t had a chance to get to know them, and this was too big, too personal, to share with a new acquaintance. Depending on Farley’s reaction if— _when_ —she told him, this could have major ramifications for their friendship.

For the most part, she really enjoyed being homeschooled. The small, insular nature of her social circle was definitely one of the drawbacks, however. When Marco had replaced Seth at the piano in her performance quartet, she’d initially been excited at the prospect of having someone close to her in age. Unfortunately, regardless of his talent on the piano, he creeped her out too much to make a viable confidante. Thérèse and Clement, the violin and viola players, respectively, were lovely people but both were in their mid-fifties and didn’t really fit that bill either.

Ugh, Marco. She’d wanted to throw away the flowers he’d sent her but two things had stopped her. The main one was that her moms had insisted that she could enjoy the lovely bouquet without that equating to an endorsement of his behaviour—and she still sort of resented that. Even if, logically, she knew they were right. It hadn’t felt worth pointing out that they’d raised her to respect her feelings, including the ones that weren’t entirely rational. She just hadn’t had the energy.

When they flowers had arrived, her heart had surged with hope that they were from Farley and the conversation with her moms had followed too closely upon the heels of that let-down for her to respond articulately. Still, feelings were feelings and looking at those flowers made her think of Marco, which made her feel queasy. Then again, at least _someone_ other than her moms had remembered her birthday. She wasn’t particularly proud of it but she knew the other reason she’d kept the flowers was to assuage her feelings of insecurity and isolation. She missed her friend. Marco and his flowers weren’t remotely what she wanted but at least they were something. She’d been hiding in her bedroom all day so she wouldn’t have to deal with any of this.

Eve knew that, deep down, Farley valued her friendship. Knew also that once he managed to reconcile his principles with his desire to play, things would settle down. She had been trying to be supportive and a good friend as he went through this challenging period but she wasn’t sure how much longer she could put up with being taken for granted. It hurt that he didn’t seem to realise _she_ might also need a friend to support _her_. She was used to talking through all of her hopes and fears with Farley but lately hockey was all he had space for and she felt adrift. She absolutely understood why Farley was so completely focused on hockey, had more or less predicted this would happen when he’d joined the team, but wished he understood that didn’t mean that she had undergone a similar transformation.

There’d been another, smaller, flare of hope when he’d burst into her room a few minutes ago—surely he was here to celebrate her birthday with her, surely he would give her some kind of explanation for forgetting, they’d laugh about it and eat leftover cake—but that spark had been snuffed out almost immediately as Farley launched into a long, involved tale about what the other Blades had done to his skates.

Eve hoped that her boredom with this topic didn’t show on her face. She wondered idly if the flashes of heat she could feel meant her radiator was on the fritz again. She’d normally have chalked that up to her crush but surely she wasn’t feeling any _ardour_ in this moment?

When he finished the story, she tried to push him to analyse his feelings, or at least acknowledge them consciously, but he just waved off her reply—something which was becoming a habit for him that she really didn’t appreciate.

He paused and grew serious. As he led up to was what obviously a declaration of some sort, she could feel her heart begin to flutter in her chest. It was suddenly harder for her to breathe and she wondered if this was it, if perhaps this crush wasn’t quite so unrequited as all of Farley’s gushing about Moose made it seem.

At his pronouncement that maybe his parents weren’t the pinnacles of cool he’d previously thought them to be, her long-suffering patience finally gave out. Farley, of course, misinterpreted her retort as her siding with his parents against him. Honestly, she needed to have a strongly worded talk with her raging hormones for fixating on someone who was so utterly self-absorbed. The timing for these feelings couldn’t have been worse. She had read the books—she knew that puberty was supposed to be a wild ride of irrationality, and that she wasn’t exactly inundated with viable crush options—but knowing what to expect didn’t make this any better.

In her more rational moments, she knew that Farley’s fixation on fitting in with his teammates was part of his own need for a wider social circle. In _this_ moment, though, on top of everything else that had been happening between them for the past few weeks, it felt like he was attacking her life choices and she just snapped.

Farley stepped closer, perhaps to make another specious argument, and she caught the faintest whiff of manufactured musk. Suddenly, the heat she’d been feeling, along with her flushed face and her earlier difficulty breathing, all took on an entirely new meaning. This jerk, her ostensible best friend, was wearing _cologne_ and _bragging_ about it when he _KNEW_ she had a severe fragrance allergy!

Eve decided she’d had enough. Farley hadn’t been acting like her best friend since he joined the team and it was high time that she stopped making excuses for him. Hopefully one day he’d figure out a better balance between hockey and everything else but she was no longer willing to sit ignored on the sidelines of his life.

After Farley left, Eve cracked a window to dissipate any lingering cologne, sat down at her desk, opened her notebook, and made herself a plan for expanding her friendship circle. She wasn’t going to stop being friends with Farley, of course not. She’d still go to games to support him, she’d just go to _some_ now and not _all_ of them. She’d still invite him to her recitals and they’d still hang out at the museum or the soup kitchen, at least on days volunteering didn’t interfere with Farley’s packed hockey schedule. She was, however, going to stop depending on him to meet her friendship needs and be more proactive about connecting with other people.

She turned the page and wrote out a list of people she knew who had real friend potential, along with a column to assign herself a deadline for reaching out to them. As her list grew, she began to feel more confident that she really could make this happen for herself.

She checked the time. It was 2:00 pm, which meant she could probably cross at least one of these off today. Looking over the list, her eyes caught on the name ‘Claudette’ and she felt herself smile. She’d seen Claudette at a few of Farley’s games and had initially been put off by the intensity of Claudette’s enthusiasm for hockey. Then, last week, they’d gotten to talking while waiting in line for soft pretzels and, apparently, that level of zeal was Claudette’s baseline. She’d been just as animated as she’d told Eve about the character she was currently playing in her weekly rpg and her new obsession with cold brewed-coffee.

Eve pulled out her cell phone and bit her lip. How did one begin a conversation with a prospective friend? She typed and deleted various options, feeling a mixture of excitement and anxiety bubble up inside her, before settling on something simple and straightforward.

> _Hey Claudette, it’s Eve. We met at the Blades game?_

The reply was almost instantaneous.

> **HI EVE!!!!!! How are you???? It’s GREAT to hear from you!!!**

Eve felt herself relax a little as they texted back and forth. They made plans to meet in an hour at a Tim Hortons that was about halfway between their respective houses. Eve’s cheeks felt tight and warm from all the smiling she was doing. Her chest felt light and open, and not just from the relief that airing out her room had brought. Reaching out to Claudette had clearly been an excellent decision and this would hopefully be the start of something wonderful. She could do this. She was doing this!

She grinned all the way to the train.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for the prompt [Distractivate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Distractivate)!! I realise this isn't precisely what you requested so I hope it's still enjoyable 😘
> 
> Thanks also to the fabulous [whetherwoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whetherwoman) for the helpful beta commas 😉
> 
> Title is from "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] I can breathe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24189076) by [olive2pod (olive2read)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/olive2read/pseuds/olive2pod)




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